SOCHI, Russia -- Leave it to a skier from California to perfectly capture the spirit of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

With her competition finished, Julia Mancuso decided to grab some waves. With the temperatures in Sochi balmy once again on Wednesday, Mancuso did some surfing in the Black Sea.

She got some help from an NBC reporter to locate a local man who builds surf boards by hand in his garage. He also had a spare wetsuit, and that's all Mancuso, who lives in Squaw Valley, needed to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes.

"There are real waves in Sochi," Mancuso said with a laugh.

Perhaps sensing that none of her friends and family back home would believe that she could actually surf in Russia in February, Mancuso used a handheld camera to film some of her ride. After getting a decent amount of footage, she put the camera away and got down to business.

"It's distracting to try and film at the same time," said Mancuso, who won bronze in the super combined and finished eighth in her two other events. "I wanted to enjoy the waves."